The cultural and media conference featuring a roundtable session with the theme: “Using Music, Culture and Entertainment as tools for a new Africa”, among other events, will witness a convergence of participants including: H.E. Dr. Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko, Commissioner for Social Affairs, Africa Union Commission; Director Culture department, Africa Union Commission, Mr. Mike Dada, President and Executive Producer, AFRIMA; members of the International Committee of AFRIMA; Africa Union Commission executives, 2014 AFRIMA award winners, music experts, award winning recording artistes and media professionals,discussing how to engage the shared African values and the spirit of Pan-Africanism for greater collaborations in music, entertainment and culture for sustainable development.
In addition, there will be the joint media conference to unveil the 2015 AFRIMA calendar and to recap the highlights of the 2014 AFRIMA programme of activities that climaxed with the main awards ceremony hosted in Lagos, Nigeria on December 27, 2014. The conference at Addis Ababa will reveal the dates for AFRIMA for 2015 as well as dates for submission of works for adjudication.
Elaborating on launch of the AFRIMA 2015 calendar in Addis Ababa, Mike Dada said: “The joint cultural and media conference organised by the African Union Commission and AFRIMA in Addis Ababa is aimed at taking African entertainment and positioning strategy to the next level and to also consolidate on the existing relationship between us. It is a privilege having the AUC believe in our dream for Africa and African music. The conference in Ethiopia will afford us the opportunity to officially present the winners of the 2014 edition of the awards to the Commission. It is important to note that AFRIMA and AUC have a common objective of promoting peace, uniting Africans and promoting Africa’s unique strength for global competitiveness and prosperity through instrumentality of culture and music.
According to the organisers of the pan-African music awards that celebrates Africans and African music culture, the conference in Addis Ababa will come to a close in the evening of April 29 with the Soiree/Cocktail event for social networking expected to hold in one of the prestigious night clubs in Addis Ababa.
“The soiree is also vital to our objectives because entertainment environments can be a great place to find and build beneficial business associations. For instance, I am proud to say that AFRIMA, through the 2014 awards ceremony, provided the platform for two of Africa’s leading lights in music, Ahmed Soultan and Wiyaala, to met and form a business relationship. Today, they have a collaborative track recorded in 2015. That, indeed is one of the reasons for AFRIMA”, Mr. Dada stated.
Earlier in April, AFRIMA 2014 winners, Ahmed Soultan from Morocco and Wiyaala from Ghana had met in Casablanca, Morocco for a recording that will form part of Ahmed’s third album due out later this year. According to Wiyaala, ‘the link up to the collaboration came when we met at the December 27, 2014 AFRIMA awards ceremony held in Lagos’. Wiyaala picked up two awards at the event, ‘Most Promising Artiste in Africa’ and ‘Revelation of the Year’, while Ahmed Soultan won the ‘Best Male Artiste in North Africa’ award. The full list of AFRIMA 2014 winners can be seen on www.afrima.org
In partnership with the AUC, ONE.org, Africa 2.0, the ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment in Nigeria, the 2014 awards ceremony was hosted by Nigeria’s international music star, 2Face Idibia and co-hosted by Maryse Acotie, a bilingual radio and TV personality from Togo. AFRIMA 2014 was sponsored by Diamond Bank PLC, Peugeot, Procter & Gamble and UBER.
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Entertainment